Antiseptic soap



UNITED STATES I GEORGE c. w. BELCHEB,

OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

ANTISEPTIC SOAP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 383,853, dated June 5,1888. Application filed April 6, 1885. Serial No. 161,363. (Specimens)To all whom it new concern.-

Be it k nown that I, GEORGE 0. WV. BELCHER, of St. Louis, Missouri, acitizen of the United States, have invented a new and useful improvementin antiseptic compounds adapted to disinfecting, deodorizing, purifying,and other analogous purposes and in the process of manufacturing thesame, of which the following is a specification.

In themanufacture of distinfecting soaps it has been common to mixdisinfecting ma terials with the soap in the liquid or plastic state, soas to form a solution pervaded by the disinfectantsubstance, the soapforming merely a diluent thereof. The intimate union between thecomponent parts, which is the result of so combining them, isobjectionable, in that it in a measure neutralizes the efficiency of theantiseptic or disinfecting agents, and because it is apt to lock themup, so that they are not liberated as readily as desirable when broughtin contact with theliquids upon which they are designed to act, whilethe blocks formed when the component parts are in solution are liable tocrack open under the action of the atmosphere or to be otherwise injuriously affected thereby. Moisture and air are both deleterious to many ofthe antiseptic and disinfecting ingredients, and if they are so solvedwith the soap as to form a practically homogeneous substance throughoutthey are in a measure destroyed in the manufacture, and many otherwisedesirable antiseptic substances are unavailable, because the excess ofalkali usually present in soap prevents their being solved with thesoap, or because the water which solves the soap would cause or permitchemical action to take place.

The object of my invention is to provide at small cost blocks or cakesin which these disinfecting or antiseptic agents shall be securelyhoused ,without dilution, and protected against liberation through theaction of air and moisture when not called into effective use whilebeing readily liberated by the contact of the substances upon which theyare designed to act. It is especially adapted for use in urinals, but iscapable of application to ,many other purposes.

The essential feature of my invention consists in compacting thedisinfecting or antisep tic agents with the soap or other matrix organgue while both are in a comminuted state and substantially free frommoisture, the compression applied being such as to form asolid orcohesive block or cake without having either material brought to asolvent or plastic state.

In practice I commonly take ordinary soap, reduce it while substantiallydry by means of any convenient chopping knife or machine to a comminutedstate, mingling with it, either during the operation of commiuuting orsubsequently, the antiseptic or disinfecting material which has alreadybeen reduced to a similar state. I then compact the intermingledsubstances into blocks or cakes by hydraulic or other suitable pressure.The agents used are thus preserved in their integrity with no dilutionor impairing of their respcctivepropertics. The soap, instead ofneutralizing the chemical agents, serves to bind them together andsealthem against the action of air and moisture, so that no escape ordeterioration is possible, except as the solution of "the soap or matrixby the contact of the substance upon which they are intended to actunlocks and releases them, when each particle acts with its unalloyedvigor, but without communicating its disintegration to other particleswhich lie within and remain intact until they arein turn called intoplay by the further solution of their matrix.

The antiseptic and "disinfecting agents may be of any characterpossessing the chemical properties desired, and may be mixed in coarseror finer grains, or mixed more or less thickly through the soap,according to the use to which they are to be put. I have used them indifferent degrees of fineness, varying from approximately the size ofgranulated sugar to approximately the size of peas: For some purposes itmay be desirable to exceed those limits, though for most purposes a meanbetween them will be preferable.

I have found thefollowing, among other antiseptic, disinfecting, ordeodorizing agents, to be suitable for the purpose, to wit: sulphate ofalumina, protosulphate of iron, sulphate of copper, sulphate of zinc,chloride of lime, also such agents as salicylic acid, benzoic acid, andthymol. I mention these as illustrations,

there being many others to which my invention is equally applicable, andwhich may be selected with reference either to economy or to theparticular property which is most desired. They may be used severally ortwo or more of them collectively in the same article.

While I have found soap the most satisfactory matrix, the advantages ofmy invention may be in a measure secured by using other soluble matricespossessing the requisite cohesiveness and solidity under ordinaryatmospheric conditions. Among others I haveused grape-sugar, but havefound it to dissolve so readily that, for ordinary purposes, I considerit less satisfactory than soap. An ordinary meat-chopper will answer forthe purpose of comminuting the soap.

Where the disinfecting agents are united with the soap by solution it isdifficult to incorporate them in greater proportion than from twenty totwenty-five per cent., while, by my method, there is no diificulty aboutin- 20 corporating. as high as seventy per cent. of

active agents.

I claim As a new article of manufacture,the hereindescribed block orcake for neutralizing the. 25

noxious properties of substances to which it is applied, consisting of amatrix of soap or equivalent solvent and cohesive material having thechemical agents in a granular form embedded therein, substantially asdescribed.

GEO. G. W. BELGHER.

"Witnesses:

WM. L. BODLEY, Gno. K. ANDREWS.

